NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 (Photo: Staff Sgt. Bradley Lail, USAF, via Wikimedia Commons).
Despite pressure from LGBT activists following the overwhelming defeat of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) on Tuesday, the National Football League is not budging on its decision to hold the 51st Super Bowl in Houston in 2017.
“This will not affect our plans for Super Bowl LI in 2017,” Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman, told NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk. “We will work closely with the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee to make sure all fans feel welcomed at our events. Our policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness, and prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other improper standard.”
HERO, which would have prohibited discrimination against a number of protected classes, including LGBT people, was passed in May 2014 by the Houston City Council. Opponents tried to petition it to the ballot, but failed to garner enough valid signatures. The Texas Supreme Court later interceded and forced the ordinance to be placed on the ballot. HERO was eventually defeated, garnering only 39 percent of the vote to opponents’ 61 percent.
Supporters of the LGBT community launched a petition at Change.org soon after the election results came in, arguing that the NFL should move the Super Bowl from Houston. As of mid-day Thursday, the petition had received 2,287 signatures.
Some had speculated that the NFL might be pressured to change the venue for the Super Bowl due to the influence of the LGBT community, in the same way that it seriously considered moving the 2015 Super Bowl from Arizona after lawmakers attempted to pass a law that would allow discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. That measure was eventually killed with a veto from then-Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican.
But while the NFL is refusing to budge on the 2017 Super Bowl, supporters of equality can take a small measure of solace that there might be at least some form of karmic justice. On Wednesday, Houston lost three separate bids to host the College Football Championship game for 2018, 2019 and 2020. As LGBT sports website OutSports notes, the three cities that Houston lost two — Atlanta, San Francisco, and New Orleans — all have nondiscrimination protections for LGBT individuals enacted into law.
Just as it did four years ago, the Trump administration has removed nearly all mentions of LGBTQ identity and HIV from the White House website.
Moreover, searches for "lesbian," "gay," and "bisexual" result in an executive order from President Donald Trump reversing various executive orders issued by former President Joe Biden.
A search for "transgender" brings up the same order, as well as a separate order effectively erasing gender identity from law and requiring the federal government to only recognize a person's assigned sex at birth on identity documents, government surveys, and to receive any government benefits.
Booz Allen Hamilton, a longtime sponsor of Capital Pride and one of the sponsors of the upcoming WorldPride 2025 celebration, has dropped its sponsorship.
The decision comes after the prominent defense contractor scuttled its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in response to an executive order from Donald Trump that seeks to compel government contractors to drop pro-diversity initiatives and programs.
Those found in violation risk being rejected for opportunities to contract with the government on the grounds that, in the Trump administration's eyes, pro-diversity policies constitute a form of illegal discrimination incompatible with the country's civil rights laws.
Putting the v-a-i-n in vanity project, writer-director Steve Balderson's Sex Love Venice might set records for solipsism in a queer indie protagonist, a category with an epic list of contenders.
But the film's hero Michael (David Bateman), lovelorn in L.A., takes the cake among gay movie leads whose entire world is presented as a series of interactions centered solely around him and his search for romance.
To friends Liza (Suzanna Akins) and Dave (Zaramok Bachok), Michael expresses his frustration with his life of casual hookups, revealed in flash-cuts to frank nude scenes, usually depicting a lack of enjoyment in one party or the other.
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